# Have people always said they are "On-line" when they are waiting in a line? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627 "2004-02-17T06:33:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/21 "2004-02-19T21:03:29Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I also pick the second paper or magazine off the stack, never the top. I never realized this was a New York thing until the Times mentioned it once. Do other New Yorkers do this? I never knew this was a NYC thing until you mentioned it. Who the hell wants the paper on the top? Man the rest of the country is weird. The more I think of it the more I realize I usually (or maybe exclusively) use on line. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/22 "2004-02-19T21:29:00Z")
It’s one of the most distinctive grammatical features of New York-area dialect - I noticed it as soon as I moved here. I’ve been here most of my adult life now, so it’s become ingrained. As has “graduated college” instead of “graduated _from_ college.” ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/23 "2004-02-19T21:34:15Z")
I’ve noticed people saying ‘on line’ since I moved to the Big Apple. In Canada (and Washington state, and Florida, and the Carolinas, and Minnesota) people say ‘in line’, as in: I was waiting in line. Canucks also tend to say ‘lineup’, as in: I was in the lineup. You’d never say : I was waiting in lineup ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/24 "2004-02-19T23:16:36Z")
I live in New Jersey (central Jersey), and when I think about it, I usually think “on line”. I myselfcan picture saying “in line,” though, so it isn’t something that seems especially foreign. I suppose it’s mostly how I’m feeling when I choose which variation to say. My mother is originally from Oregon, but I haven’t really noticed which one she says. She’s lived in D.C. and NYC a lot, too, so those may have influenced both what I say and what she says. I go to college at The College of New Jersey, which is in South Jersey, so I’ll do a bit of experimentation to see which phrase my South Jersey friends use. ---
**Author:** ![Omnipresent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@Omnipresent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omnipresent)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/25 "2004-02-19T23:46:58Z")
Language is strange. New York here and, I’ve used “On-line” my whole life. Havn’t had the guts to try “So, I was standing in the que the other day and…”, yet. Having been in the military where getting “on-line” was full-time job, I submit that, you get be “on-line” WITHOUT being “in-line”. It’s picky but, being “IN-line” would mean a perfect geographical line. That’s hardly likely. People lean a little this and a little that way. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/26 "2004-02-19T23:53:10Z")
> [@YPOD](#): > > On line was the way we always said it here in New York. SWAG - When I was traveling in Europe, I noticed that Americans and Englishmen tended to line up for tickets; while others tended to mob and surrond the ticket seller. I suspect that at one time, when Tammany Hall was passing out whatever to their voters - mostly immigrants, they may have had painted a line to keep order, make it easier to count and keep track of who had gotten what. That would also explain why it is a New York and Northeast type phrase. Wow, you may be onto something here! As a midwesterner and “in line” sayer (except when I’m, you know, _on-line_, as in on a computer), I’ve always thought of the “line” that I’m in as composed of the people themselves, not something on the ground that they were standing on. Oh, and if people told me they “formed a queue,” my first instinct might be to picture them joining hands in a circle, and to wonder who got to be the tail of the Q. ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/27 "2004-02-20T03:04:20Z")
> [@NYR407](#): > > I never knew this was a NYC thing until you mentioned it. Who the hell wants the paper on the top? Man the rest of the country is weird. > > The more I think of it the more I realize I usually (or maybe exclusively) use on line. Midwestern-born New Yorker checking in… I still defiantly wait **in** line. As do most people I know who are from somewhere else. But anybody who takes the newspaper on top has obviously been here for only a week or two… the top paper is used to keep the rain and snow off the other papers, and it’s often badly torn, so some people think sections of that top paper are free. After the first time you buy a paper and notice the sports section’s missing, ya learn. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/28 "2004-02-20T03:44:42Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I dunno, I lived almost 18 years in VT, traveled extensively to NH, ME, MA, and CT, and NEVER heard ‘on line.’ In addition, I live in New York now (the Albany area) and still never hear anyone say it. I only hear it on TV or movies. Me too. If it wasn’t for a poll here on the boards last year, I never would have heard of the expression. I’ve hear “being in queue” in real life (though rarely) but never “on line.” ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627/29 "2004-02-20T05:37:15Z")
I was born in raised on Long Island, and “on line” seems completely wrong to me. I always stand in line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-people-always-said-they-are-on-line-when-they-are-waiting-in-a-line/229627.md?page=1)